Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience
Sasken, a communication software company based in India, provides research and development support to leading wireless device vendors from its offshore centres in India in an intellectual property-oriented product and services space. Sasken has faced a number of challenges in building an advanced multimedia player for high-end mobile handsets for the Japanese market. The Japanese market is one of the most advanced in the mobile services it offers, and is well ahead of the rest of the world in terms of handset functions and features. Located in an offshore centre far away from the target market, in a country where the mobile industry is still evolving, the Sasken project team faced a number of challenges in building a technology-intensive product according to its client's specific requirements. With high client expectations and norms regarding quality, completeness of the product and timeliness of delivery, the Sasken project manager had to successfully manage evolving technical requirements for the product from the company's offshore centre in Bangalore. Sasken's project team also had to cope with unavailability of tools and platforms, with communication and co-ordination challenges, and with cultural differences that were typical of offshore product development. This case illustrates how having clarity on product features, following a suitable process orientation, adhering to quality and timeline expectations, effectively dealing with a distributed team setup, and managing cross-cultural issues are important pre-requisites for success in offshore software development.
Swot Analysis of "Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience" written by Varadharajan Sridhar, Selvaraj Vadivelu includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Sasken Offshore facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Product development, Project management, Technology and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sasken Offshore, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sasken Offshore operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sasken Offshore
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Sasken Offshore
Strengths Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sasken Offshore in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Sasken Offshore is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Sasken Offshore has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Training and development
– Sasken Offshore has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Analytics focus
– Sasken Offshore is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Varadharajan Sridhar, Selvaraj Vadivelu can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Sasken Offshore to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Sasken Offshore to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Sasken Offshore is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Sasken Offshore is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Sasken Offshore in the sector have low bargaining power. Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Sasken Offshore to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Sasken Offshore in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Sasken Offshore is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Sasken Offshore is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Sasken Offshore has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Sasken Offshore digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Sasken Offshore has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Weaknesses Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Sasken Offshore is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Sasken Offshore has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Sasken Offshore is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Sasken Offshore needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Sasken Offshore to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Sasken Offshore has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Need for greater diversity
– Sasken Offshore has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Sasken Offshore has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience, it seems that the employees of Sasken Offshore don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Sasken Offshore 's lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience, in the dynamic environment Sasken Offshore has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Sasken Offshore has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Sasken Offshore has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Opportunities Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience are -
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Sasken Offshore in the consumer business. Now Sasken Offshore can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Sasken Offshore can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Strategy & Execution segment.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Sasken Offshore can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Sasken Offshore has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Sasken Offshore to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience case study. Sasken Offshore can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Sasken Offshore to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Sasken Offshore to increase its market reach. Sasken Offshore will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Sasken Offshore can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Sasken Offshore in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Sasken Offshore can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Sasken Offshore is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Sasken Offshore can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Sasken Offshore to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Sasken Offshore to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Sasken Offshore has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Sasken Offshore to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience are -
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Sasken Offshore.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Sasken Offshore high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Sasken Offshore can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Sasken Offshore has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Sasken Offshore needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Sasken Offshore demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Sasken Offshore with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Sasken Offshore business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Sasken Offshore in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Sasken Offshore can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience, Sasken Offshore may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Sasken Offshore in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Sasken Offshore is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Sasken Offshore needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Sasken Offshore can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Sasken Offshore needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
Feel free to connect with us if you need business research.
You can download Excel Template of Case Study Solution & Analysis of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience
